The invention relates to a gripper for a tufting machine, in particular a tufting machine which can be used to selectively produce loop pile or cut pile.
Tufting machines have been known. For example, they are used in carpet manufacturing. In this case, they comprise a table over which the carrier material (the so-called backing) of the future carpet is advanced. A needle bar with needles is located above the carpet, whereby each of the needles has an eye through which the pile thread passes. By rhythmic vertical movement of the bar, this pile thread is repeatedly punched through the backing which is advanced between individual punches. A bar with gripper modules is arranged underneath the backing. The grippers of said module firmly hold the forming pile thread loops during the return stroke of the needle bar. Grippers, which cut open the formed thread loop, respectively in interaction with a knife during a subsequent step, have also been known. Regarding this, it has been known from practical applications to provide a hard-metal insert on the gripper body, said insert having a cutting edge interacting with the knife. If, in addition, the gripper contains a slider in order to selectively switch from loop pile to cut pile and vice versa, the gripper thickness becomes relatively large due to the side-by-side arrangement of the slider and the hard-metal insert. This gripper thickness cannot be randomly reduced because the hard-metal insert requires a minimum thickness of clearly greater than 1 mm. However, the aim is to provide carpets having loop or thread rows at minimal distances.
Considering this, it is the object of the invention to provide a gripper and a gripper module which, on the one hand, permit switching from cut pile to loop pile and which, on the other hand, permit the production of carpets with rows of loop pile threads or cut pile threads following each other closely and exhibiting a long useful life.